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Friday, January 01, 2010

I did not grow up with ABS

Evidently, my 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 did not have anti-lock brakes. How do I know this? Because my 2009 Charger *DOES* have an anti-lock braking system. And, how do I know that? Well, aside from the little "ABS" indicator that lights up on the dash board during start-up, I engaged my ABS the other day, much to my surprise! And, to my knowledge, I never experienced anything quite like I did the other day...

I am old enough to have been trained up in the ways of driving long before ABS was a twinkle in some engineers eye - or at least before the general public was allowed t have it anyway. Thus, I was brought up with the "pump/release/pump/release" method of stopping hard.

Now, I do remember being told that in an ABS-equipped vehicle, one should NEVER do the pump/release as it defeats the system and can actually cause more problems than it solves. Learning this, though, does not immediately equate to understanding.

When I first brought my car home from the dealer, I applied the brakes as we approached our driveway. We live on a gravel road with a lot of pits and potholes and, well, loose gravel. When I put my foot on the brakes (from about 30 mph), I felt the brake pedal pushing back at me in spurts and heard what I thought was a horrid crunching noise coming from the front-end of the vehicle. My first reaction was shock, then a bit of fear (afraid I had managed to break something already), then I was highly ticked off that I was sold a car with bad brakes!

I let it go, figuring I would ask the dealership about it when I took my car in to be serviced. Before that could happen though, I met a couple of deer running down the paved road that leads to our dirt highway leading to our house. I stepped on the brake, felt the pumping against my foot, heard the crunching from the wheels and came to a dazed and confused halt in the road - unscathed and in the same general place I had started the stop. I was more freaked out about the car's reaction than the deer for which I had come to a screeching halt. The deer, by the way, had scampered over a barbed wire fence and into the woods.

When I got home, I made a mental note to check out ABS and to make sure I wasn't the only having this "problem." Not only was I *NOT* the only one, it turns out the brakes worked exactly as they were designed:

I found several forums and several other informational sites that featured posts by concerned drivers who, like me, had never experienced the "thrill" of stopping on anti-lock brakes. What I also learned was that if I ever truly feel unsafe, I should have the braking system checked to be on the safe side. I will do that if I feel like I am ever out of control while making a sudden stop. As it stands, I now understand what had previously been explained, and I feel fine about the whole thing.

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Popped in my Head is copyright David Henderson. Individual articles are copyrighted based on their publication date. All opinions expressed on this site are those solely of David Henderson and not his employer or associates.